Pool pal vs pool math chem suggestions? Way diff.. why?

[lightmaster]

Best way would be to put your sump pump in the bottom of your pool and a garden hose in your skimmer. Turn your pool pump off to let the water settle down so you can add the new water on top of the old water. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with the sump pump and time it so you can convert that to gallons per hour. Then fill the 5 gallon bucket with a garden hose and slow down the hose with the spigot to be able to fill the bucket in the same time. Calculate how many hours you'll need to do run it to be able to drain the amount of water you need to. (Post how long it takes to fill the 5 gallon bucket on here and someone can help you calculate the rest) Then just put the garden hose back in your skimmer and you should be able to drain and refill your pool at the same time without mixing the waters much and without exposing your pasted to the blistering heat.

 

[lightmaster]

Also, if your pool guy does come tomorrow, he probably doesn't understand the relationship between CYA and FC, and might think we're talking out our a*ses. Just remember that short of leaving their pool alone, like going on vacation, pretty much none of the guys on this forum have gotten any green swamps while doing the TFPC method, and even while on vacation most still don't. However most new members join because either a pool store or a pool guy kept their FC too low and CYA sky high, and they have regular algae blooms. Which group sounds like they actually know what their talking about?

 

[triptyx]

If you're draining, and have a sub pump, just use that. No risk that your expensive pool pump runs dry while you're not paying attention.

 

[AlbertD]

Cancelled pool service today. Didn't get time yesterday so they came out one more time. Oh well. Test kit should be here by end of week. Then will look at a partial drain and refill maybe over the weekend.

 

[jmastron]

A couple if things:

- If you have a recent K-2005, it probably has a chlorine reading range from 0-10ppm (What's the highest number under the "Cl" header?). The FAS-DPD test is still highly recommended because it's easier to do the drop count accurately and goes even higher, but the DPD test isn't bad as a backup/daily check if you can read the colors well.

- Since we're nearing the end of swim season here in central CA, I might wait to drain until the rainy season -- first of all you won't feel as guilty using water in the winter, and rainfall will hopefully take care of some of it (30" of rain here in Sacramento last winter corresponded to half the water in my pool; not all at once of course, but my CYA dropped a lot). 130 isn't ideal, but if you're not trying to SLAM a swamp it's maintainable. Yes, you need to get to a higher FC level, but the FC also won't go down as quickly so the overall chlorine usage might be lower. In hot sunny places like this, a final CYA level of 60-80 is often better anyway for the same reason.

- Don't worry about phosphates and borates right now; get and keep the main parameters in balance (FC, CYA, pH, TA, CH and the resulting CSI number from pool math). General consensus here is that phosphates aren't an issue in most pools -- if the FC level is kept in the recommended range relative to CYA there's no algae to eat the alleged "food".

 

[AlbertD]

- If you have a recent K-2005, it probably has a chlorine reading range from 0-10ppm (What's the highest number under the "Cl" header?). The FAS-DPD test is still highly recommended because it's easier to do the drop count accurately and goes even higher, but the DPD test isn't bad as a backup/daily check if you can read the colors well.

YES - it read up to 10ppm.

- Since we're nearing the end of swim season here in central CA, I might wait to drain until the rainy season -- first of all you won't feel as guilty using water in the winter, and rainfall will hopefully take care of some of it (30" of rain here in Sacramento last winter corresponded to half the water in my pool; not all at once of course, but my CYA dropped a lot). 130 isn't ideal, but if you're not trying to SLAM a swamp it's maintainable. Yes, you need to get to a higher FC level, but the FC also won't go down as quickly so the overall chlorine usage might be lower. In hot sunny places like this, a final CYA level of 60-80 is often better anyway for the same reason.

Good tip. Maybe i will wait til later in the fall season to make a big dent in it. For now, i'll just backflush a few inches a week and replace, as normal.

- Don't worry about phosphates and borates right now; get and keep the main parameters in balance (FC, CYA, pH, TA, CH and the resulting CSI number from pool math).

General consensus here is that phosphates aren't an issue in most pools -- if the FC level is kept in the recommended range relative to CYA there's no algae to eat the alleged "food".

I figured i'd grab those tests just to have them on hand. Phosphate test isn't here yet, and yeah, if i keep the rest of my levels in check, it would be a moot point. Borates i tested, and it came out to a 15. Whatever that means (I havent got that far yet). lol


Got the fas-dpd test today and reran all tests but CYA (since I've only exchanged a few inches of water). CC was at 0.5.
Figured I'd add another bottle of 8.25 bleach to bring up to aprox 14 (according to the calculator), so I'm not riding on the bottom of the scale.

 

[mknauss]

Borates i tested, and it came out to a 15. Whatever that means (I havent got that far yet).

Unless you added borates, you have no borates in your water.

How did you test for borates?

 

[AlbertD]

Unless you added borates, you have no borates in your water.

How did you test for borates?

I've never added them, but no clue about previous owner or pool guy. We've only owned the home for a year.

I got a borate test strip kit. Which I'm sure isn't the most accurate, but for a few bucks to see if there was anything, figured it was worth it.

 

[AlbertD]

Tested again today, this was after adding 121oz of 8.25% bleach yesterday. I also used the method in step 8 of Pool School to measure the higher CYA values. So it looks like I'm more around 140 than my original guesstimate of 130.

Looks like I'll need another 3/4 bottle of bleach to maintain the middle of the road based on my CYA. Just as a rough guess compared to yesterdays FC (10) reading and today's reading (12), and the 1 bottle of bleach, (should have pushed me to aprox 14 last night), I'm losing about 2 FC/day. Does that sound about right? That's roughly a half a bottle of 8.25% bleach a day. Which would be about $30/mo in bleach. Obviously as weather changes that will change too. Just getting a rough cost estimate here.


Todays readings:

 

[jmastron]

A 2ppm loss on a sunny warm day is pretty normal for an uncovered pool -- in fact, if your CYA was in the 30-40 range you'd probably be losing more like 3-4ppm/day, so it's not costing you more right now (that's why you might want to leave it closer to 60-70 when you do drain).

When the days get cooler and the sun less direct, and the pool water cools, the FC usage will go down. In the winter when my water is 40-50 degrees, a gallon of chlorine every few weeks is usually sufficient to maintain the minimum.

If you have a solar cover, that will drastically reduce both evaporation and FC usage (and make the water a lot warmer for swimming, of course).

 

[Soupy]

Are Reverse Osmosis filtration services an option where you live? They can filter out the CYA from the water.

 

[AlbertD]

Thanks Guys.

We do have a solar blanket. And will probably start using it again soon. I did about 60oz of 8.25 bleach this morning to bring me up near the 14 mark (approx).

Good news is, the pool is also no longer cloudy!!

I did get my phosphate test kit last night. it said it was around 200ppb. But since I've been keeping my FC higher to match my CYA, that shouldn't even matter (but nice to know).

With the money I hope to save on the pool guy, I hope to be able to convert to an automatic pump controller. so I don't have to turn it on/off manually every time (preferably one that works with Smarthings!) Any recommendations?